Page 17 of Sliding Into Love
Ethan’s thick, dark brows nearly met in the middle as he scowled.
“But I’m a well-adjusted adult now, see?” She rose and lifted one leg, wiggling her toes to show him her fuzzy socks with little cartoon spaceships printed all over them. But when she tried to sink back into her seat, her foot landed square on the napkin that had fallen from her lap. Her foot slipped, sending her careening toward the table. Until Ethan’s hand darted out, wrapping around her upper arm to steady her. Then he let his hand slide down the length of her arm, his fingers rough but warm and barely touching her. When he reached her wrist, he jerked his hand away, flexing it as if only just realizing he’d touched her.
Ivy tried to remember to breathe.
“That’s twice you’ve caught me. Maybe I should keep you around for insurance purposes.” Her voice came out hoarse.
Dark, faintly startled eyes met hers. And Ivy thought he might say something, flirt back a little. But he let out a stiff laugh and continued eating with no other response.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a few moments.
“For what?” she asked, nonplussed. Had he disliked touching hersomuch?
“I hate for kids to be in shitty situations.”
Oh.
Oh.
“OOOOOH!” came a chorus from the dining room. “Swear jar! Swear jar!” Jase and Janna chanted.
Ethan looked incredibly confused, and Ivy refused to acknowledge how adorable it made him.
“Oh, we have a jar for when we swear,” she explained. “A quarter per word.”
“Hmm.” He fished in his pocket and pulled out a dollar, handing it to her. “Here, for my next ones too. I have a dirty mouth.”
Ivy wouldn’t let herself imagine what she’d like Ethan to do with that mouth, though her cheeks turned pink again.
When she returned, Ethan was still eating, but Lily had joined him, and he had a deer-in-headlights look. In the thirty-odd seconds Ivy was gone, Lily had managed to find out his age (27), sign (Scorpio), and where he was from (Indianapolis, though his family had moved a lot). She was a master at getting people to talk, even if they didn’t want to. Ivy thought it was because she had poreless skin (she’d been adopted as a child, so she claimed it wasn’t from good genes, just a strenuous ten-step Korean skincare routine), falsely guileless eyes, and she tended to wear her shiny black hair in youthful styles to trick people into a false sense of security without realizing they were really dealing with a she-demon.
Ivyadoredher.
From a distance, Ivy watched Lily drawing more information out of Ethan as he finished the last of his tacos. What else might be hiding beneath the surface, if only she could draw it out?
But he flinched away from you, Ivy reminded herself.He doesn’t want to be close to you.
And then she told herself to shut up before she followed that train of thought right off a broken track into a ravine.
Ivy found her half-empty plate, shoved another taco in her mouth, basking in its drippy glory, and left Ethan to Lily, who was asking him what it was like to be a famous baseball player.
“Oh, I’m not famous.” His face went white. “I’m only there to play,” he said, ducking his head so his long, dark hair hid his eyes.
Oh, that hair. In the limited interactions they’d had, Ivy had only seen him with a hat covering his hair, but with it off, Ethan’s hair was…pretty. Though it felt odd to think of any feature on such a large, solemn man as pretty, it was the best descriptor. Dark and shiny, his hair looked so soft, Ivy longed to card her fingers through those perfect shoulder-length waves. Maybe she should ask Derek to find out what products Ethan used.
Rolling her eyes at herself, Ivy went in search of Derek, who lounged on the sofa. With him sat Janna, whose face was smudged with salsa.
“So,” Derek deadpanned, “did you thank him for his balls?”
Ivy choked on a chip loaded with queso and salsa.
“Ya know, since he signed all those for you?” Derek wasn’t looking at Ivy, but she heard the smirk in his voice.
“I said thank you very much,” Ivy said primly. Or as primly as she could while shoving another chip into her mouth.
“Oh my god, you thanked him for his balls?”
“Shut up, you know what I meant. I think I annoyed him so much, he hates me now.”
